Visual artist, author of irreverent reproductions of masterpieces, Vincent Corpet explores museums in a sarcastic manner. With Jean-Michel Geneste, he is author of the work, Voir ça, Savoir, created during a research trip to the Dordogne, upon invitation from the Pôle international de Préhistoire (International Prehistory Centre).
"La modernité est née avec les grottes" Vincent Corpet, Libération, 21-22 July 2012
"The funny thing in the caves is that every time someone does something, they do it perfectly. It's always been that way in art, except during periods of art pompier [overblown, insincere 'fireman art'], when in a way it was science that "blocked" things: there were codes saying you had to have a profession, but on the whole, an artist has no profession. They are a thinking-drawing body: once you say you are a painter or an engraver, you're a thinking-drawing body, all you need to do is think and draw".
"Scientists have discovered something that has completely changed our ability to think and see, particularly Beauty. Today, if we ask everyone the question: what is Beauty? What is your favourite work of art? 10% would say La Vénus de Milo, and the rest would choose a sculpture from Oceania, or a wall from Lascaux. In 1880, when we looked at that and asked people, "What is beauty?" Everyone said La Vénus de Milo.
Scientists, with this understanding of this ancestral man and these caves, and the ability to see them, have completely changed the work of artists".